Ten of Salt Lake County’s 16 cities have combined forces and set aside $200,000 to increase services for the homeless in Salt Lake County. It’s a new collaboration spearheaded by Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker and Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams.
The Road Home, Volunteers of America and 4th Street Clinic will use this new money to develop a street engagement team, made up of full time employees from each of those organizations. 4th Street Clinic CEO Kristy Chambers says the team will operate out of a shared headquarters in her office and spend their time engaging the homeless and directing them to services.
“Now you’ll have your medical outreach team coordinated with your basic needs outreach team, coordinated with your housing needs that will then be there,” Chambers says. “And we hope to manage that more administratively so that the housing and the medical outreach and the street outreach will be able to work together, ultimately to get people into housing.”
Each of the cities and unincorporated Salt Lake County have set aside 35 cents per resident for the fund. It’s called the Council of Governments Homeless Services Grant; the Salt Lake County Council of Governments being a group of mayors from each city and Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams. Each year, cities across the county will have the option to contribute to the fund.
